Today Wonkette brings to us via Jezebel the fascinating How Much Time Should Women Spend In Prison for Having Abortion? It seems that a film maker approached a group of abortion protestors in Libertyville and asked them that question.
Being a heavy pro-choicer myself, seeing these protestors clam up at a simple question made me giggle with glee. How silly the woman looks saying that having an illegal abortion has enough punishment from God. But, really, demanding that something be made illegal, you should really have an appropriate consequence for breaking the law in mind.
I wonder what it would be like to ask the abortion protestors on St. Charles in front of the unmarked building near Louisiana that very same question? Would their responses be similar? Would they have law-breakers executed? I guess it all depends on the background in which you're coming from and why you've formed such an opinion.
The original source of this discussion stems from Anne Quindlen's article in Newsweek with the same title. Many quotables within the article, but the ending sticks out:
Nearly 20 years ago, in a presidential debate, George Bush the elder was asked this very question, whether in making abortion illegal he would punish the woman who had one. "I haven't sorted out the penalties," he said lamely. Neither, it turns out, has anyone else. But there are only two logical choices: hold women accountable for a criminal act by sending them to prison, or refuse to criminalize the act in the first place. If you can't countenance the first, you have to accept the second. You can't have it both ways.
Don't victimize women.
View a shortened version at Jezebel, or the entire footage on YouTube.
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